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Posted by
Mr Smith
on 2008-02-21

Over the years, I have heard many VCs say that "the market is not large enough" in the first or second meeting. New entrepreneurs should know that this means "no."

Pocket edition of "Theoretical Future Market Values through 2020 - 3rd Edition" does not exist, nor is there a team of analysts at a VC firm inventing new markets to value. From the way that some VCs can confidently look you in the eye and say that "the market is too small" after fingering your PowerPoint, you would think that they have flipped to page 128 of the market reference guide while pecking away on the Blackberry.

The reality is (a) you have likely done a bad job explaining the market size in your pitch and (b) there is not a lot of anecdotal data for the VC to make an off-the-cuff mental estimate. When you pitch your business, you must reference concrete market data points, the best examples of which are recent liquidity events, that a VC can understand quickly. Read on...